Erroneous measurements from medical equipment can often be attributed to clinician operator error. A number of these errors relate to the clinician's lack of understanding of how to properly use the equipment or how to properly place physiological sensors. While these problems exist at all clinician skill levels, medical equipment operator errors are especially problematic in triage situations, ambulatory care settings, such as where a clinician periodically takes vital signs, and at company and school medical clinics.
At the lowest skill levels, when clinicians were asked how they use basic medical instruments, such as digital thermometers, clinical workers commented that the devices have too many features, modes, or settings that they do not know how to use. One clinician observed by analogy that a TV has lots of nice features, but the only buttons I know how to use are power, on/off, channel, and volume. Higher skilled clinicians, including registered nurses, have problems operating some medical equipment, simply because there are so many models and types that it is too difficult to become familiar and skilled with the features and operation of each one. Another problem is that higher skilled clinicians are less likely to ask for help. Either their peers or superiors are too busy for equipment operation questions, or some skilled clinicians are too embarrassed to ask for help and/or hesitant to show their lack of knowledge to others.
Some clinicians will do “whatever it takes” to make seemingly uncooperative medical instruments produce a reading that can be recorded. For example, clinicians using a feature rich digital thermometer were observed shaking and rattling the thermometer until it appeared to function. Even when the thermometer ended up in an incorrect mode, some clinicians still used the reading, not realizing that the reading was in error. In other cases, when the thermometer did not seem to give a useful reading, clinician's were observed to excessively move the temperature sensor around in the patient's mouth or to remove and replace it in the patient's mouth an excessive number of times.
While most medical equipment comes with an operating manual, such manuals are rarely easily accessible by the operator of the equipment. Generally the manuals end up in a difficult to access filing cabinet or worse yet, in the trash. Even in cases where medical equipment manuals are available to the operating clinicians, there is often little or no time for a clinician to read each manual.
There is a need for medical equipment that can assist a clinician in the proper use of the medical equipment during routine use. There is also a need for medical equipment that can automatically detect incorrect use and suggest a proper operation to the equipment operator.